Sushi Bay (Photo: a screenshot from Sushi Bay’s website)
JAKARTA, Aug. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – A Korean-owned sushi chain in Australia has been hit with a record-breaking fine of approximately 15.3 million Australian dollars for systematically underpaying its workers, as reported by ABC News Australia on August 7.
The Federal Court of Australia ruled on August 5 that Sushi Bay, a popular sushi restaurant chain, had underpaid 163 employees more than 650,000 Australian dollars between February 2016 and January 2020.
The court ordered four affiliated companies to pay 13.7 million Australian dollars in fines, while the owner, identified only by his surname Shin, was personally fined 1.6 million Australian dollars.
The court also mandated that all affected employees receive their unpaid wages. The majority of the underpaid workers were Korean nationals under the age of 25, employed on working holiday or skilled visas.
The case came to light after two employees reported suspicions of unpaid wages to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), Australia’s workplace regulator. This prompted a widespread investigation across all Sushi Bay outlets, leading to the FWO filing a federal lawsuit alleging systematic exploitation of foreign workers.
According to the FWO, Sushi Bay violated numerous labor laws.
The company paid cash wages below the minimum wage, failed to provide proper overtime, holiday, and annual leave pay, and in some cases, demanded kickbacks from employees in exchange for visa sponsorship.
To conceal these practices, the company falsified various records, including pay slips.
Judge Anna Katzmann described the case as “a brazen but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to exploit migrant workers and conceal that exploitation,” noting that “the overwhelming majority of contraventions were deliberate.”
The FWO stated that this fine is the largest ever imposed for wage underpayment in Australia. The record-breaking penalty was attributed to Sushi Bay’s deliberate and repeated exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers, despite having faced similar fines in 2019.
ABC News reports that all Sushi Bay locations across Australia have now closed, with only one Sydney outlet remaining operational under the management of a company liquidator.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
